I identified the same issue with cycle time, but to me the biggest problem is the assumption of an accurate, sensitive, non-destructive-read sensor. They're assuming that they can charge a capacitor from a photodiode accurately, and also hook a voltage comparator (which is effectively the same as an ADC) to it constantly to get an accurate pulse to count.
Assuming you have an accurate sensor that can be read non-destructively, then none of this modulus stuff is necessary anyway. Read once to set the proper gain on the ADC, then read again to get the fine bits. That way you still get the "unbounded HDR", but you don't need an ADC for every single receptor site, and you don't waste space on the counter or comparator. Instead, all of that lives on the image processor where it's not going to cause heat noise.
That's such an incredibly enormous hand-wave to me that I feel I've got to be missing something. Why make it so complex with all the modulus stuff if we have a magic sensor?
Assuming you have an accurate sensor that can be read non-destructively, then none of this modulus stuff is necessary anyway. Read once to set the proper gain on the ADC, then read again to get the fine bits. That way you still get the "unbounded HDR", but you don't need an ADC for every single receptor site, and you don't waste space on the counter or comparator. Instead, all of that lives on the image processor where it's not going to cause heat noise.
That's such an incredibly enormous hand-wave to me that I feel I've got to be missing something. Why make it so complex with all the modulus stuff if we have a magic sensor?